Two years ago it struck my neighbors tree, which was only 50 feet from our house. Sadly they had a cable in the tree strung to another tree with a tether for their dog, it travelled the cable which hung over a gas line it then when down the tether into the ground hitting the gas line and traveled to the next house which in turn burnt to the ground. Luckily everyone got out alive. It was the loudest noise and brightest light I have ever experienced.

My sister was on a cordless phone once while lightning strikes were everywhere, a bolt struck the house punching a hole in the siding. The phone fried and my mother was none too happy with her as she had been warned time and again to stay off the phone when lightning strikes. Living in Atlanta there are a ton of really unpredictable pop up storms every summer and with those almost always comes cloud to ground strikes. It can be pretty scary.

My hubby and I got home from town during a storm and as I went to put the key in the door it would not work. I pulled it out and lightning hit the house and sent a huge spark out the window about three feet from me. My jacket was singed and I was in full on panic attack. I luckily had the wrong key or it would have been grounded little me that would have been nailed by the spark, not the groundwire attached to the house. It blew our satellite cable tube in half from the inside out...it was a 1/4" thick aluminum pipe.
I had a headache for the rest of the night. Stress or electricity....still not sure. I am deathly terrified, but that stems from watching the neighbor's horse get hit and die when I was about 10 or so. That is a horrid memory!!!!